If you read, I was apparently talking about your subjective interpretation of the Applebee's comment, which is further explained in the sentence after. I wasn't speaking of the definition of "openness to new experiences".Originally Posted by xerx
From my own highly-subjective interpretation, which is what you are going by for yourself, all the "hippie cafes" around here are formulaic as well, that I've eaten at. I live about 5 minutes from Berkeley. Regardless of whether you eat at Applebee's or Berkeley Bowl, the menu doesn't change too much, nor does the atmosphere, the crowd, or anything else for that matter. Applebee's has new items on the menu actually more often than Berkeley Bowl. I'm open enough to new experiences to eat at both. So if I "desire a different thing and a new experience" in completion, I really couldn't eat at either, because I've eaten at a shitload of both. Which is my point.... you are too subjectively defining the things he says..... The real difference is in the advertising.... Applebee's projects a different image and draws in a different crowd. Advertising doesn't mean truth. There's nothing any less formulaic about Berkeley Bowl than there is about Applebee's. It just caters to a different crowd. If you're talking chain restaurants, yes, there are also "independent cafes" here who turn into larger chains, so then, does an "independent cafe" become "formulaic", and if I eat there, does that mean I can't be a part of the in-crowd this guy is discussing? I mean, where are your lines, mr. open to new experiences. Just because there is more than one of a restaurant and it uses the same "formula" in each, doesn't mean it won't give me any less of a new experience than an independently-owned operation which is also mostly the same when I visit, nor does it mean that it's "bland".
If you go into the independently-owned hippie cafes around here, you will find a similar-minded crowd, similar menu, similar atmosphere. So in that way, it's just-as, if not more formulaic at times than a chain-based family restaurant. A hippie cafe is a hippie cafe is a hippie cafe.
It's more complicated than you want to believe it is. You seem to want easy answers, and ways of defining yourself. If anything, you are predictable and I'm not.
So, I rest my point, that determining I won't eat at Applebee's is more close-minded than deciding I will, which makes me less close-minded on that point. Applebee's is not any more familiar to me than Berkeley Bowl, nor is it any more dependable, in fact, less dependable overall. Nor will Applebee's offer me any more or less of a new experience than eating at Berkeley Bowl. So eating at Applebee's for me is not any more or less of an "open to new experiences" thing than eating at a hippie cafe. You are obviously more liberal than I am. So it's bullshit and entirely subjective, when you take into consideration how complicated it actually is.
In fact, I am the one constantly scoping for new restaurants, new places, new bars, and new experiences, and I'm less liberal than you are, and less likely to go along with the status-quo, apparently. Open your mind a bit, silly.
